


Coming and Going

by WasJustAReader



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Alanna's got some shit to work out and she's gotta GO work on it, Book: Lioness Rampant, Family, Friendship, Gen, Home, but she'll be back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26367415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WasJustAReader/pseuds/WasJustAReader
Summary: A short conversation between Alanna and Thayet about Alanna's planned return to the desert at the end of Lioness Rampant -- after she asks Jon if he minds if she goes, but before she actually leaves.
Relationships: Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau & Thayet jian Wilima
Kudos: 26





	Coming and Going

**Author's Note:**

> Nope, I did not consult the timeline on Tammy's site to calculate the time it'd been since Alanna had seen her friends. But I think they're accurate enough. Particularly given the loose relationship with time this whole universe has. :p

“Are you alright?” Thayet asked quietly, not looking up from the leather belt she was mending.

“Not really, no,” Alanna said, shrugging.

They were sitting on a bench in the back garden of Myles’s townhouse, enjoying the last rays of late afternoon sunlight that reached over the walls and rooftops of the city around them.

Thayet hummed, glancing up from her work. “I thought not.”

Alanna chuckled faintly, shaking her head. “I need to go south for a while.”

“Back to the Bazhir?”

Alanna nodded. "Mhmm."

“We’ll miss you,” Thayet said, very matter of fact.

That drew a true smile from Alanna. She sighed and tipped her head back against the garden wall, rolling it to look sideways at her friend. “I’ll write.”

“I know you will. Can I just ask you something, though?”

Another shrug. “Go ahead.”

“When George met us at the port, how long had it been since you’d seen each other?” Thayet asked, setting her mending down in her lap.

Alanna sighed, thoughtful. “Mm, nearly a year and a half?”

“And Jonathan when we arrived in the city?”

“Closer to two.”

“And Sir Myles and the rest of those that care for you here in the capital?”

Alanna groaned. “Thayet…”

Unbothered, Thayet shot her friend a pointed look. Go on.

“Another half or so again, except for Myles – he was with Jon in the desert.” Alanna huffed in irritation. “Look, I’m going to the desert, not returning to the Roof of the World. I need a break is all. I’m not going to disappear."

Thayet smiled widely and nudged Alanna’s shoulder with her own. “I know. I just wanted to hear you say it.”

Alanna rolled her eyes, but grabbed Thayet’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze before quickly letting go and self-consciously brushing hair from her eyes. “It won’t be for too long, I promise. I’ll come home."

“You’ve talked to Jonathan already?”

“Yesterday. He gave his leave.”

Thayet snorted. “As if you needed it truly!” She paused then, looking at Alanna closely. “No, that’s not right. You would stay if he asked it of you, wouldn’t you? Even now, after everything.”

Alanna shrugged. “He didn’t ask it.”

“And George?”

“Mithros, Thayet! What is this, interrogation?”

Thayet raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow.

“No, I haven’t told him. Or Myles. Or anyone but you, actually. Not yet.”

The two women sat in silence for a moment, listening to the faint bustle of the city beyond the walls, and the birds chirping from the branches of the apple tree in the corner of the garden.

“When will you go?” Thayet asked finally.

Alanna blew out a loud breath between pursed lips. “I was thinking by the end of the week. Take a few days to get things sorted, and then just… go. I need to go, Thayet. I’m itchy with it. Raw. I’ll be back by Midwinter at the latest, I promise. Maybe even sooner. I’m not _leaving_.”

Thayet snorted. “I think that’s exactly what you’re doing, Alanna; but I take your meaning. It’s a reprieve; and one well deserved at that. Those who love you understand. Just don’t wait too long to tell them, alright? Don’t let saddle bags tell the tale for you.”

Alanna flushed. It would be a lie to say that she hadn’t – in her lower moments – fantasized about packing her bags, saddling Moonlight and disappearing without a word under cover of darkness, but she knew she couldn’t – wouldn’t – do that. Her friends deserved better, deserved proper goodbyes and promises to return.

“You know,” Alanna said, stretching her legs out in front of her, and glancing over at Thayet, “I’ve hardly spent a season in Corus since I earned my shield, and yet… somehow, it’s never felt more like home than it does right now. Even as I’m about to say goodbye.”

“Mm, funny how that works, isn’t it?” Thayet replied softly. Her gaze was distant for a moment, and Alanna knew she was thinking of her own far off homeland. “But,” she added, shaking herself slightly, “the good news is that the city will be here when you’re ready to say hello again. We’ll be here.”

Just then, George appeared in the doorway, sent by Eleni to call them in for supper.

Thayet smiled as Alanna jumped up to follow George inside, laughing as Alanna playfully shoved him against the doorframe in an attempt to beat him in to the kitchen.

“We’ll be here with open arms,” Thayet murmured to herself before getting up to follow her friend, giving George a small shove of her own as he ushered her in to the house with a theatrical bow.


End file.
